Life Begins At Conception

[chezuki]

Do I ever ask a question that isn't a setup? (Ok, sometimes I'm just curious, but I usually say that when it happens.)



This is not scientific. Those zygotes are human. They may not become a viable embryo, but that does not make them non-homo sapien. They do not become nothing.


Clearly, some things are beyond human control. Does every zygote have the right to be born? If only that were within our technology - many a couple struggling with infertility would have hope.

Rather, it is one of opportunity. Should every zygote deserve an opportunity to develop? If a zygote develops to a viable embryo, what then?

Perhaps most importantly, shouldn't there be a principled reason for a societal decision where to draw the lines?

Personally, it looks like technology is moving forward dramatically. It is not beyond the realm of possibility to say that we might be able to determine fetal viability in individual cases with a high level of confidence. The Supreme Court did not have that when it decided Roe v. Wade. I think that's an important time-stamp. Once an embryo is viable, it is a life separate from the mother in legally meaningful ways.

You were the kid knocking on this door weren't you?

 

[singlesix]

Pizza?

Mister, you don't get pizza until you finish your INGO AR15 build(s)!

(show your work!)

Didn't get one, so I get the Pizza now?

 

[lizerdking]

 

[T.Lex]

You were the kid knocking on this door weren't you?

Hey now, I didn't drive the van. Just asking what candy.

ETA:
At least between me and Paul, I'm very confident we can have a civil, principled discussion on this. Zygotes. Not candy.

Well. Maybe candy. But that might require a different.... Tac-Tic.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

The Supreme Court did not have that when it decided Roe v. Wade.

Shades of "The founding fathers were thinking about muskets....."

 

[chipbennett]

Pizza?

Mister, you don't get pizza until you finish your INGO AR15 build(s)!

(show your work!)

Well, crap. I've never built an AR15. (Oh well; pizza is so high-carb, anyway...)

 

[spencer rifle]

Squid = eating rubber bands
Squid pizza = rubber band pizza

And, yes, you can find anything on the Internet, even rubber band pizza:

 

[chezuki]

Squid = eating rubber bands

Then it was cooked wrong.

That's like saying "steak = eating shoe leather" just because you've never had a properly cooked steak.

 

[rvb]

This goes along with my acorn/oak tree analogy...an acorn may be genetically identical to the oak tree it may someday become, but it is functionally much different...I cannot build a canoe from an acorn.

so... not an oak tree??

If it is, where on this timeline do we distinguish when it becomes an oak?

-rvb

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

so... not an oak tree??

Now that I've seen the cute little guy, there's no way I could pull it out of the soil.

 

[chezuki]

 

[chezuki]

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Dream Big

I like it.

 

[PaulF]

so... not an oak tree??

If it is, where on this timeline do we distinguish when it becomes an oak?

-rvb

That is an oak seedling.

Under favorable conditions it will take root and become an oak sapling.

It isn't an oak tree until it measures 4" diameter at breast height.

So, no...that isn't an oak tree.

 

[chipbennett]

That is an oak seedling.

Under favorable conditions it will take root and become an oak sapling.

It isn't an oak tree until it measures 4" diameter at breast height.

And yet, all along: it's an oak.

 

[spencer rifle]

Then it was cooked wrong.

That's like saying "steak = eating shoe leather" just because you've never had a properly cooked steak.

I don't think my wife's grandma, the original little old Italian grandma who worked as a cook at a banquet hall, would do it wrong. Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

 

[eldirector]

I wonder, at which point did that oak become alive?

 

[T.Lex]

I wonder, at which point did that oak become alive?

Well, little eldirector, when a mommy tree and a daddy tree love each other - and are properly betrothed - they share a special kind of hug.... and wood...

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I wonder, at which point did that oak become alive?

That depends on when the little flash of light happens.

 

[rvb]

That is an oak seedling.

Under favorable conditions it will take root and become an oak sapling.

It isn't an oak tree until it measures 4" diameter at breast height.

So, no...that isn't an oak tree.

so it doesn't count until it is in its final, mature state? (note I didn't say size/height).

-rvb